Mexico prison fire: Dozens dead after riot in Monterrey jail

At least 50 people reportedly killed in a prison riot in north-eastern Mexico

By Harriet Alexander, Ciudad Juarez

1:15PM GMT 11 Feb 2016

At least 52 people were killed on Thursday in an hours-long battle between rival gangs in a Mexican prison, less than a week before Pope Francis is due to visit a notorious jail in the country.

The riot broke out in the early hours of the morning in Topo Chico, near the city of Monterrey, flames leaping from the building after prisoners setting parts of it ablaze. The prison, in the troubled north of Mexico, is 700 miles to the east of the border city of Ciudad Juarez, which Pope Francis will visit on Wednesday.

On Thursday morning, as news of the riot spread, families gathered at the prison desperate to find out whether their relatives had survived. At one point the crowd forced open the gates, throwing stones and pieces of timber at riot police inside.

The Nuevo Leon state government said on Twitter the situation had been brought under contro Photo: AFP/Getty Images

Ernestina Grimalda, whose son is an inmate, said she saw ambulances arriving before dawn.

“We’re blocking the road until they give us an answer,” she said. “We want to know how our relatives are, because they are saying that there may be 50 dead and no one official is telling us anything.”

Jaime Leon, the governor of Nuevo Leon state, confirmed the death toll and said 12 people were injured.

Mr Leon, a maverick independent politician who goes by the name El Bronco, was elected in October in a rejection of “establishment” politicians, who have ruled while the state is ravaged by drug gangs. With his Stetson and cowboy boots, he styles himself as an anti-cartel, anti-corruption crusader, and has survived several assassination attempts.

Topo Chico prison in the northern city of Monterrey Photo: AFP/Getty Imgaes

"I want to know that my daughter is okay. She is in the infirmary. There are children in there," said one woman outside the prison as other relatives shouted and cursed.

Jaime Rodriguez, the governor of Nuevo Leon state, confirmed the death toll and said 12 people were injured. He said the fight involved a faction led by a member of the infamous Zetas drug gang, Juan Pedro Zaldivar Farias, also known as Z-27, and a group from the rival Gulf Cartel.

Mr Rodriguez, a maverick independent politician who goes by the name El Bronco, was elected in October in a rejection of “establishment” politicians, who have ruled while the state is ravaged by drug gangs. With his Stetson and cowboy boots, he styles himself as an anti-cartel, anti-corruption crusader, and has survived several assassination attempts.

Local media reported that relatives had heard gunshots inside the building, though the governor insisted that there was no gunfire and that inmates used sharp objects, bats and sticks. Some relatives who had been on conjugal visits at the time reported seeing inmates with burns.

"We are experiencing a tragedy stemming from the difficult situation that they are living through at penitentiary facilities," Mr Rodriguez said.

The Topo Chico prison is operating at double capacity and has cells with no water, ventilation or light, according to the United Nations. Female prisoners have reported being forced into sexual slavery by male inmates.

Mexico's official National Human Rights Commission reported in 2013 that the country's prison system is plagued by violence. The commission visited 101 prisons and found that over half of them were being run by the inmates, rather than the authorities.

In one of the worst incidents in 25 years, 44 inmates died in a prison massacre in February 2012 in Apodaca, Nuevo Leon. After the incident, three top prison officials and 26 guards were accused of helping inmates escape in the confusion.

Relatives of prisoners had heard gunshots in the early hours Photo: AFP/Getty Images

And on Wednesday, during his six-day visit to Mexico, Pope Francis will visit inmates inside a prison in Ciudad Juarez – the sprawling metropolis bordering El Paso which was, in 2010, the most dangerous city in the world.

In 2009 an estimated 300 prisoners died inside the prison he is to visit, as a result of gang warfare.

The prison is now being shown as an example of how the authorities have wrested the city and its institutions back from control of the cartels.